In industry today, there is a continuing need to develop increasingly small sensors that can run with very low power consumption. Cold atom sensors represent one developing technology that have the potential to satisfy both the size and power needs for such small sensors such as highly stable miniature atomic clocks and high performance inertial measurement systems. Cold atom sensors operate by laser cooling and trapping of atoms. An anti-Helmholtz magnetic field can then be applied in order create a trapping potential, the minimum of which defines the center of the trap. The anti-Helmholtz field profile is usually produced by electro-magnetic coils where electric current to the coils can be switched on and off during the measurement cycle. However, these electro-magnetic coils can consume large amounts of power in a cold atom sensor. This configuration requires the coils to remain energized to maintain the atom trap, and then momentarily turned off so that the trapped atoms can be probed to obtain measurements.
For the reasons stated above and for other reasons stated below which will become apparent to those skilled in the art upon reading and understanding the specification, there is a need in the art for alternate systems and methods for providing low power magnetic field generation for atomic sensors.